We arrived at our upgraded snow monkey hotel, and I was very pleased with our choice. We had traditional Japanese rooms with private showers in each room. We also had several onsens to choose from if we wanted. Our meals were served in a traditional Japanese manner with each course carefully plated in individual containers that were as pretty to look at as the food.
Our first trip to visit the snow monkeys turned out to be great even though it was lightly raining and there was no snow. We did see a few small patches of snow here and there. That said, tough conditions make one think a little harder about compositions. We recommended to the group to stay focused on the monkeys in the onsen or to work tight to eliminate most of the background. Also, to look for any of the monkeys in the trees or in the snow patches. Turns out everyone had a barrel of fun <wink>. The monkeys are so darn cute and extremely entertaining, so there was no lack of photos to be had.
Our first day with the Red-crowned cranes in Hokkaido was off to a shaky start. Our first photo session was a bomb as we didn’t see many cranes in the early morning after visiting a secret spot our guide had. We ended up leaving the cranes and decided to go find the Ural owl. We found two in a tree cavity, they were resting but some of the group got shots of them kissing -or at least it looked like they were.
White-napped on the right.
Our afternoon picked up with a sighting of a White-naped crane. Our guide said he hasn’t seen one in Hokkaido in 20 years, so I was hoping to get a good shot of one. That didn’t quite happen on the first day but he returned on future visits. According to what I found on the internet, the White-naped cranes live only in Northeast Asia and are rare migratory birds that are classified as an internationally endangered species and are designated as Level 2 Endangered Wildlife. I’ve included a few of my shots above so you can see how beautiful they are.
Snow day— jackpot!! We had snow all day at the crane sanctuary, and everyone was extremely happy with their photos. One of the ladies captured two mating cranes. Lots and lots of great fly-ins with dozens of cranes circling overhead, such fun!
Our day on Rausu ended up being good. We had mixed lighting that was relatively easy to work with. The photography turned out to be pretty darn good. We photographed some fox and Yezo sika deer on another of our outings.
Steller's sea eagle
Yezo sika deer
I shot this Ezo fox as a high-key image so that the snow would be cleaner and the shadows would disappear.
We went to Lake Kussharo for the Whooper swans. This turned out to be an amazing day of photography. We had nice conditions with tree branches that lined the tips of our frames and everyone enjoyed their time there. I only got two photos from the early part of the morning that I liked. They are directly below. One has a feather floating in the foreground, it was on the shoreline and I put it back in the water just before taking the photo.
During our time with the swans, I worked on some soft ethereal images as the wind blew the snow all around the swans, I couldn’t help myself but to concentrate on that situation. I shot with my 70-200mm II, f/2.8 lens and I loved every minute of lying on the snow. I think it has convinced me to pick up the Sony 400mm f/2.8 lens. I have been shooting with the Sony 200-600mm lens at 6.3 for so long, I almost forgot how much fun a 2.8 lens is. Some of those images are above.
I enjoyed my time with the group as they are all extremely kind and respectful. We had some good laughs and adventures on this trip. Our guides and hosts were all great and I can’t wait for next year’s trip!
Some B-roll pics below.
Multiple exposure stacked in Photoshop on my way to see the monkeys on a snow day.
On my way to see the monkeys on a snow day.
At Lake Kussharo
At Lake Kussharo
I used my Sony 200-600mm lens, Sony 70-200mm lens, Sony 12-24mm lens and my Sony 24-105mm lens for the images above. The variations of slight color tones in the images reflect the light of the day as each were captured at different times of day and also on different days. For a full listing with links of my gear check out my gear page HERE.